Sunrise, Sunrise
by Moksgmol
Summary: Post BDM. Zoe mourns and remembers Wash in her own way. Inspired by the songs 'Don't Know Why' and 'Sunrise' by Norah Jones.


'When I saw the break of day

I wished that I could fly away'

-_'Don't Know Why' _ by Norah Jones

_Serenity_ was finally on her way again, freshly repaired under Kaylee's watchful eyes by the alliance. Everyone was well on their way to being healthy, with the obvious exception of the old owners of the two gaping seats in the galley.

Zoe had managed to avoid being on the bridge during take-off, and Mal had pointedly ignored her absence, simply putting his focus on guiding River through her first takeoff. The young reader was also prudent enough to not note the first mate's lack of appearance.

She stayed out of sight until the ship was well into her sleep cycle and everyone was safely quiescent until she made her way to the helm, pausing just outside the door. She reached out to open the hatch, knowing that the room would be cleaned, that he wouldn't be there, but still filled with an irrational sense of dread.

Taking a deep breath she pushed open the hatchway and stepped in, freezing in shock when she saw that the bridge was bright, filled with a dazzling golden glow.

--

_Zoe made her way up to the bridge, intending to find Mal, a little uncomfortable when she realized that the only other person in the room was their new pilot. Their new, rather unsettling pilot, in her opinion. Bothered her, he did._

_And he was chatty. Zoe was _not _a fan of chatty. Especially since he now had her trapped in the room with him and was babbling away about this and that, showing no signs of letting up anytime soon._

_Oh well. At least he had shaved off that stupid mustache._

_'And really, it was a silly planet. I mean, why terraform a planet if you're not going to help people live there? These poor people have taken to juggling peahens of all things! I mean, they're full grown! The peahens that is. At least the geese made sense, and they _were_ wacky fun. Seriously, I mean at least those geese were babies, and-'_

_All of the sudden the bridge was filled with light, momentarily blinding the two and silencing Wash._

_'What was that?' Zoe snapped, immediately tense and hand already on the comm to call the captain._

_''Whoa, whoa, calm down... nothing to be alarmed about. Just a sun. It'll be here for a while too.'_

_'What?'_

_'You know, a sun? Giant ball of glowing, super-hot gas that gives off light? Warm too.'_

_Zoe just deadpanned a stare at him. 'We'll be passing it for a while?'_

_'Yeah. Doesn't happen too often, usually you just past them real quick. But this one is rising and we're following it's trajectory for a couple of hours, so we're going to have a pretty sunrise out here in the black. A pretty long sunrise that is. Or maybe a sunset...'_

_'I've never even heard of this kind of thing.' Now that she knew it wasn't a threat, Zoe kind of liked the way everything was lit up, and she made her way through the two consoles to have a better look at _Serenity's _nose, all shiny-like. She pressed her left palm against the glass and leaned forward until her nose was almost touching it, letting her right hand rest gently on her gun._

_Wash was momentarily speechless at the sight. He knew that she was gorgeous - not that he would ever way it out loud, for fear of his life... or at least his manhood - but he was stunned at how innocent she looked in that moment._

_'The're good luck, you know.'_

_'What?' she softly questioned, pulling her eyes away from space to meet his._

_'Pilots've always thought of them as good luck on account of them being so rare. And pretty.'_

_The right side of her mouth twitched up in a bit of a smile, and he was pleased to have made her open up a little._

_'Here, let me show you something.' And with that Wash pushed himself out of his seat, making his way towards her. 'See how the planets are all lit up? The light bounces of them and makes all sorts of great colours.'_

_She pulled her eyes away from the ship's nose to look into the black, and saw what he meant at once. 'Oh' She breathed out, bringing her other hand to rest on the window. 'Look at that one.'_

_They stayed in silence for a while, watching a rainbow of planets sail by, until Wash leaned a little closer to her ear to whisper, 'See that brown one over there?'_

_Zoe cast her eyes about for it, frowning when it didn't jump out at her. _

_'RIght over there.' _

_When she still didn't spot it, Wash took a breath to steal himself before reaching up behind her head, gingerly placing his hand at the spot where her neck melted into her shoulder. She shot him a look but said nothing, and allowed him to gently redirect her head until she was looking the same part of the sky as he was._

_'There. The brown one. I know that it isn't as colourful as all of those other planets, but it kind of reminds me of you and all your browncoat-y ways.'_

_Zoe gave a full smile this time, looking at the little planet covered in swirling coco and milky chocolate browns._

_'Thanks, Wash. Who knows, maybe our next job'll be luckier than most. 'Course, that probably just means that only one of us'll get shot this time 'stead of all of us.'_

_Wash chuckled. 'No problem, warrior woman.'_

_Zoe cut her eyes sideways at him, 'What did you just call me?'_

_'MS. warrior woman! I meant MS. warrior woman!'_

_Zoe barely managed to keep her smile from growing any larger. She gave him nod. 'Be sure it stays that way.'_

_And they spent the rest of the time watching the sunlight in silence._

_--_

That had been the first time Zoe had ever spoken to the pilot privately, and the first time she'd realized that what it was about him that had bothered her... a budding attraction, something she had never really experienced before and something she couldn't resist in the end.

And so she stood for hours again in the light, not crying but remembering, and just wishing that the damn sun would set. She didn't want good luck, she just wanted her husband back.

_Okay, hope that you all enjoyed that little oneshot. It was inspired by two songs by Norah Jones: _'Don't Know Why' _and '_Sunrise.' _ I do have another chapter for my other firefly fic almost done, but I'm out of town and I haven't yet had the chance to proof it. Soon I promise! Just gotta get through this family reunion first, haha._

_Cheers, Moksgmol_


End file.
